.N3M28 


THE  GENTILE  SYSTEM 

OF 

THE   NAVAJO   INDIANS 

BY 

WASHINGTON  MATTHEWS,  M.  D.,  LL.  D 

MAJOR   AND   SURGEON,  UNITED   STATES   ARMY 


DELIVERED  AS  A  LECTURE  BEFORE  THE  ANTHROPOLOGICAL 
SOCIETY,  WASHINGTON,  D.  C. 


JOURNAL   OF 

AMERICAN  FOLK-LORE. 

VOL.  III.  — APRIL-JUNE,  1890.  — No.  IX. 


THE  GENTILE   SYSTEM  OF  THE  NAVAJO  INDIANS. 

1.  IN  the  most  extensive  and,  to  my  mind,  the  most  reliable  ver 
sion  which  I  have    recorded  of  the  great  creation  and  migration 
myth  of  .the  Navajos,  more  than  two  thirds  of  the  story  is  told  before 
the  first  mention  of  an  existing  gens  is  made.     Men  (or  anthropo- 
pathic  animals  and  anthropomorphic   gods,  as  they  may  better  be 
considered)  had  ascended  through  four  lower  worlds  to  this  world  ; 
they  had  passed  through  many  dire  vicissitudes  ;  they  had  increased 
and  warred  and  wandered  ;  they  had  been  almost  exterminated  by 
evil  powers;  the  sacred  brothers  —  the  Navajo  war-gods  —  had  been 
born,  had  grown  to  manhood,  and  had  in  turn  slain  the  evil  tormen 
tors  of  their  race,  before  the  ancestors  of  the  nuclear  gens  of  the 
Navajos  were  created. 

2.  That  portion  of  the  legend  which  gives  an  account  of  the  origin 
and  accession  of  each  gens,  and  the  origin  of  its  name,  fills  fifty 
closely  written  folio  manuscript  pages.     To  repeat  it  in  its  entirety 
would  make  this  paper  too  long,  and  would  convey  much  information 
that  is  foreign  to  the  matter  now  under  consideration  ;  therefore  it 
is  thought  best  to  give  only  an  abridgment  of  the  story  in  this  con 
nection,  reserving  the  unabridged  tale  for  future  publication. 

3.  When  the  goddess  Estsanatlehi  went,  at  the  bidding  of  the 
sun,  to  live  in  the  western  ocean,  and  the  divine  brothers,  the  war- 
gods,  went   to  Thoyetli  in  the  San   Juan  valley  to  dwell,    Yolkai 
Estsan,   the  White  Shell  Woman,  went  alone  into  the   San  Juan 
mountains,  and  there  she  wandered  around  sadly  for  four  days  and 
four  nights,  constantly  mourning  her  lonely  condition,  and  thinking 
how  people  might  be  created  to  keep  her  company.     On  the  morn 
ing  of  the  fifth  day  the  god  Qastecyalgi  came  to  see  her,  and  having 
heard  her  plaint,  promised  to  return  in  four  days  more.     When  he 
came  back  he  brought  with  him  several  other  gods,  whose  long 
names  need  not  be  mentioned  here,  and  all  these  powers,  with  their 
combined  efforts,  and  by  means  of  many  ceremonies,  created  a  hu- 


1*1  2.  8 


QO  Journal  of  A  merican  Folk-Lore. 

man  pair  out  of  two  ears  of  corn,  —  a  yellow  ear  for  the  female  and 
a  white  ear  for  the  male.  The  wind-god  gave  to  these  the  breath  of 
life  ;  the  god  of  the  white  rock  crystal  gave  them  their  minds ;  and 
the  goddess  of  the  grasshoppers  gave  them  their  voices.  This  pair, 
being  regarded  as  brother  and  sister,  could  not  marry  one  another  ; 
but  a  divine  pair  was  found  to  intermarry  with  them,  and  from  these 
are  descended  the  gens  of  Tse'jinkini,  which  signifies  Dark  Cliff 
House,  or  House  of  the  Dark  Cliffs.  They  are  so  called  because 
the  gods  brought  from  the  houses  in  the  cliffs  of  Tse'gihi  the  ears 
of  corn  of  which  the  first  pair  was  made.  [In  the  language  of  the 
legend,  "Seven  times  old  age  has  killed  "  since  this  pair  was  created. 
This  Navajo  expression  would  be  rendered  by  interpreters,  "  Seven 
ages  of  old  men."  Some  Indians  have  told  me  that  this  "  age  of  an 
old  man  "  is  a  definite  cycle  of  102  years,  —  the  number  of  counters 
used  in  the  game  of  kesitct.  Others  have  said  that  it  is  "  threescore 
years  and  ten,"  which  they  say  is  the  ordinary  life  of  an  old  man, 
while  others  declare  that  it  is  an  indefinite  period  marked  by  the 
death  of  some  very  old  man.  If  this  Indian  estimate  were  accepted, 
it  would  give  for  the  existence  of  the  nuclear  gens  of  the  present 
composite  Navajo  nation  a  period  of  from  500  to  700  years.] 

4.  At  the  lodge  of  Yolkai  Estsan,  in  the  San  Juan  mountains,  these 
two  couples  remained  for  four  years,  and  here  a  boy  and  a  girl  was 
born  to  each.  From  the  mountains  they  removed  to  a  place  called 
Tse'lakaiia,  or  White  Standing  Rock,  and  here  they  had  lived  for 
thirteen  years  when  the  following  incident  occurred  :  One  night 
from  their  hut  they  saw  the  gleam  of  a  distant  fire,  and  the  next  day 
went  to  look  for  it,  but  sought  in  vain.  The  next  night  they  once 
more  saw  the  gleam,  and  the  next  day  looked  again  vainly  for  signs 
of  the  fire.  On  the  third  night  they  stuck  a  forked  stick  in  the 
ground,  and  took  sight  on  the  fire,  and  the  next  day,  looking  over 
the  forked  stick,  they  were  guided  to  a  small  grove  on  the  side  of  a 
distant  mountain  ;  to  this  they  at  once  repaired,  but  found  no  sign 
of  the  presence  of  man,  and  no  remains  of  a  fire.  They  were  about 
to  give  up  the  search,  when  the  wind-god  whispered  to  them  that 
they  had  been  deceived,  that  the  fire  they  had  seen  shone  through 
the  mountain,  and  he  bade  them  search  on  the  other  side.  So  they 
crossed  the  mountain,  and  there  in  a  bend  or  turn  in  a  canon  they 
found  a  group  of  twelve  persons  of  various  ages.  The  joy  of  both 
parties  was  great  at  thus  finding  beings  like  themselves  in  the  wil 
derness,  and  they  embraced  one  another  in  joy.  The  strangers  said 
that  they  had  lived  in  that  canon  only  a  few  days,  and  that  they  had 
come  thither  from  a  distant  and  miserable  land  where  they  had  lived 
on  ducks  and  snakes.  They  were  given  the  name  of  Tse'tlani,  which 
signifies  Turn-in-a-Canon  People,  from  the  place  in  which  they  were 


The  Gentile  System  of  the  Navajo  Indians.  91 

found.  As  they  did  not  claim  for  themselves  a  special  creation,  they 
were  supposed  to  have  escaped  the  fury  of  the  destroyers  (anaye)  by 
virtue  of  some  divine  quality.  Hence  they  were  called  0ine  0igini, 
holy  or  sacred  people,  as  were  other  gentes  who  joined  afterwards. 

5.  From  the  place  where  they  met,  this  combined  people  moved  to 
£o'0okonji,  or  Bitter  Water,  where  they  remained  only  a  few  days. 
Then  they  went  to  Tca'olgaqasdji,  where  they  lived  long  and  culti 
vated  corn.     When  they -had  been  here  fourteen  years,  another  small 
group  of  people  came  into  their  neighborhood  :  these  were  also  con 
sidered  0ine  0igini,  as  they  had  escaped  from  the  alien  gods.     They 
said  they  came  from  the  mountain  of  Dsilnaogil,  and  they  were  there 
fore  given  the  name  of  Dsilnaocilni,  or  Dsilnaoc.i'10ine.      They  did 
not  camp  at  first  with  the  older  gentes  ;  they  dwelt  a  little  distance 
from  the  latter,  and  often  sent  to  them  to  borrow  pots  and  metates  ; 
but  they  finally  came  and  lived  beside  the  older  gentes,  and  have 
ever  since  been  close  friends  with  them  (i.  e.,  became  members  of 
the  same  phratry).     The  new  arrivals  dug  in  the  old  pueblo  ruins 
and  found  pots  and  stone  axes  ;  with  the  aid  of  the  latter  they  built 
themselves  houses. 

6.  At  the  end  of  seven  years  from  the  accession  of  the  third  gens, 
another  party  arrived.    This  people  said  they  had  been  following  the 
Dsilnaogilni   all   over  the  land  for  many  years.     Sometimes  they 
would  discover  the  dead  bushes  that  remained  from  their  old  camps  ; 
sometimes  they  would  find  the  bushes  still  partly  green  ;  occasionally 
they  would  find  old  and  nearly  defaced  footprints  ;  but  again  they 
would  lose  all  traces  of  them.     Now  they  rejoiced  that  they  had  at 
last  found  those  whom  they  had  so  long  and  wearily  pursued.     The 
new-comers  were  observed  to  have  arrow-cases  (unlike  the  modern 
Indian  quivers)  similar  to  those  carried  by  the  Dsilnaocilni  ;  for  this 
reason  they  were  regarded  as  related  to  the  latter,  and  therefore 
these  two  gentes  became  very  close  friends  (i.  e.,  formed  one  phratry). 
The  strangers  said  they  came  from  a  land  where  there  was  much 
yucca,  and  which  they  called  for  this  reason  Qackanqatso.    They  said 
they  were  the  Qackan0ine  or  Yucca  People  ;  but  the  older  gentes 
called  them  from  their  former  home,  Qackanqatso,  or  Qackanqats6- 
0ine. 

7.  Fourteen  years  after  the  advent  of  the  fourth  or  Yucca  gens, 
all  these  Indians  (let  us  now  call  them  Navajos)  moved  to  the  neigh 
borhood  of  Kintyeli,  a  ruin  in  the  Chaco  Canon,  which  was  even 
then  in  ruins.    They  were  now  a  good-sized  party,  and  their  scattered 
campfires  at  night  were  so  numerous  that  some  strangers  dwelling 
on  a  far-distant  mountain,  observing  the  lights,  came  down  to  see  to 
whom  all  these  fires  could  belong.     These  strangers  camped  with 
the  Qackanqatso  and  Dsilnaogilni.     They  came  from  a  place  scuth 


9 2  Journal  of  A  merican  Folk-L ore. 

of  where  is  now  Zuni,  near  the  salt  lake  called  Naqopa',  which  means 
a  horizontal  brown  streak  on  the  ground,  and  for  this  reason  they 
were  called  Naqopa'-jzine  or  Naqopani. 

8.  After  this  occurrence  the  Navajos  moved  to  a  place  on  the 
banks  of  the  San  Juan  called  Tsingobetlo,  or  Tree  Sweeping  the 
Water  (probably  a  birch).     It  was  now  autumn,  and  concluding  to 
remain  here  all  winter  or  longer,  they  built  warm  qogans  (huts)  and 
cleared  land  to  be  planted  with  corn  in  the  spring.     Six  years  after 
they  had  settled  in  the  San  Juan,  a  sixth  band  came  from  a  place 
called  Tsinajini  or  Black  Horizontal  Forest,  and  it  bore  this  name 
in  the  tribe  ever  after.     The  myth  states  with   much  particularity 
the  social  condition  of  the  Navajos  at  this  time.     It  says  they  had 
as  yet  no  herds ;  they  made  their  clothes  mostly  of  cedar-bark  and 
other  vegetable  fibres,  and  built  stone  store-houses  among  the  cliffs. 

9.  Eight  years  after  the  Tsinajini  joined  the  tribe,  some  strange 
campfires  were  observed  on  a  distant  eminence  on  the  north  side  of 
the  river,  and  couriers  being  sent  out  returned  with  the  news  that 
the  fires    belonged  to  a  strange  people  camped  at  a  place  called 
£qa'-nesa*.      These  joined  the  Navajos  as  a  new  gens,   and  were 
called  £qa'nesa'ni,  from  the  place  where  they  were  found  in  camp. 

10.  Another  band,  making  now  eight  in  all,  joined  the  tribe  five 
years  later,  while  it  still  sojourned  in  the  neighborhood  of  Tsin^o- 
betlo.     These  people  came,  they  said,  from  a  place  called  Dsiltia',  or 
Base  of  Mountain,  where  an  arroyo  runs  out  from  the  mountain  into 
the  plain,  and  they  were  therefore  called  Dsiltla'ni.     As  they  were 
seen  to  have  similar  head-dresses,  bows,  arrows,  and  arrow-cases  to 
those  of  the  £qa'nesa/ni,  they  were  considered  kindred  of  the  latter, 
with   whom  they  are   now  closely  related  and  cannot   intermarry. 
They  introduced  the  art  of  making  wicker  bottles  and  pottery. 

11.  Five  years  later  they  had  a  very  important  accession  to  their 
ranks  in  a  numerous  tribe  from  £qa'paha-qalkai  (White  Valley  among 
the  Waters),  near  the  present  city  of  Santa  Fe.     These  had  long 
viewed  in  the  western  distance  the  mountains  where  the  Navajos 
dwelt,  and  wondered  if  any  one  lived  there.     After  a  time  they  de 
cided  to  go  to  the  mountains.     They  journeyed  westward  twelve 
days  .until  they  reached  the  mountains,  and  they  spent  eighteen 
days  travelling  among  them  before  they  encountered  the  Navajos. 
When  they  met  the  latter  people,  they  could  discover  no  evidence  of 
relationship  with  them,  especially  in  language ;  so  for  twelve  years 
the  two  tribes  dwelt  apart,  but  always  on  friendly  terms.     In  the 
mean  time,  however,  intermarriages  had  taken  place,  and  the  feelings 
of  friendship  grew  until  at  length  the  £qa'paha'-0ine  were  adopted 
by  the  Navajos  as  a  new  gens. 

12.  The  £qa'paha  settled,  near  the  rest  of  the  tribe,  at  a  point  in 


The  Gentile  System  of  the  Navajo  Indians.  93 

the  San  Juan  valley  named  Hyiegin  (Trails  Leading  Upwards).  Up 
to  this  time  all  the  old  gentes  spoke  one  common  tongue,  the  old 
Navajo  ;  but  the  speech  of  the  (^qa'paha  was  different.  In  order  to 
reconcile  the  differences,  the  chief  of  the  Tsinajmi  and  the  chief  of 
the  £qa'paha,  whose  name  was  G6ntso,  or  Big  Knee,  met  night  after 
night  for  many  years  to  talk  about  the  two  languages,  and  to  pick 
out  the  words  of  each  which  were  the  best.  But  the  words  of  the 
£qa'paha  were  usually  the  plainest  and  best,  so  the  present  Navajo 
language  resembles  more  the  old  £qa'paha  than  the  old  Navajo.  [It 
is  well  to  relate  that  this  compliment  to  the  £qa'paha  tongue  was 
uttered  by  one  who  was  himself  of  this  gens.] 

13.  Some  years  after  the  removal  to  Hyiegin,  a  party  of  Utes 
visited  the  Navajos,  and  stayed  all  summer.     In  the  autumn  all  de 
parted,  except  one  family,  which  remained  behind  with  the  £qa'paha. 
At  first  they  intended  to  stay  but  a  short  while,  but  they  lingered 
along  year  after  year,  and  ended  by  never  going  away.     In  this  Ute 
family  there  was  a  girl  named  Tsa'yiskfe,  or  Sage-brush  Hill,  who 
married  a  Navajo  and  became  the  mother  of  a  large  family.    Her  de 
scendants  are  now  the  gens  of  Tsa'yiskfeni,  who  are  closely  allied 
to  the  £qa'paha  (in  the  same  phratry),  and  cannot  intermarry  with 
the  latter. 

14.  Not  long  subsequent  to  the  visit  of  the  Utes,  the  Navajos 
were  joined  by  more  people ;  as  these  came  from  £qa'paha-qalkai, 
and  spoke  the  same  language  as  those  who  first  came  from  that  place, 
they  were  not  formed  into  a  separate  gens,  but  were  adopted  into 
the  £qa'paha0ine. 

15.  About  this  time,  or  a  little  later,  a  large  band  of  Apaches 
came  from  the  south  to  the  settlement    on  the  San  Juan.     "We 
come  not  to  visit  you,  but  to  join  you,"  they  said.     "We  have  left 
the  Apaches  forever."     They  were  all  members  of  one  gens  among 
the  Apaches,  that  of  Tsejin£iai,  or  Black  Standing  Rocks   (i.  e.,  a 
trap  dyke),  under  which  name  the  Navajos  adopted  them  as  a  gens. 
They  are  now  affiliated  with  the  £qa'paha,  with  whom  they  cannot 
intermarry.     Another  (small)  party  of  Apaches  came  later  from  the 
same  place  as  the  last,  and  were  added  to  the  same  gens. 

16.  In  those  days,  there  being  famine  in  Zufii,  some  persons,  in 
cluding  women,  came  over  from  that  pueblo  to  the  valley  of  the  San 
Juan  to  dwell  with  the  Navajos.     They  came  first  to  the  £qa'paha, 
and  were  adopted  directly  into  this  gens.    The  gens  of  Zuni  (Nanac- 
gejin)  was  formed  later. 

17.  About  the  same  time  that  the  famine  occurred  at  Zuni,  it 
prevailed  also  at  Klogi,  an  old  pueblo  now  in  ruins,  somewhere  in 
Rio  Grande  valley,  not  far  from  the  present  pueblo  of  Jemez.     Fugi 
tives  from  this  place  formed  the  gens  of  Klogi,  which  affiliated  with 
£qa'paha. 


94  Journal  of  American  Folk-Lore. 

1 8.  The  next  accession  was  a  family  of  seven  adults  from  a  place 
called  £6<qani,  or  Near  the  Water ;  under  this  name,  as  a  gens,  its 
members  affiliated  with  Dsiltla'ni,  the  people  among  whom  they  first 
came  to  dwell. 

19.  The  people  who  next  joined  the  Navajos  came  from  some 
place  west  of  the  San  Juan  settlement.     They  were  not  a  newly 
created  people ;  they  had  escaped  in  some  way  from  the  alien  gods, 
and  were  therefore  regarded  as  jzfine  0igini.     They  represented  two 
different  gentes,  (^qa'tcini  and  Kai-0ine,  or  Willow-people,  and  for  a 
while  they  formed  two  gentes  in  the  tribe  ;  but  in  these  days  all 
traces  of  this  division  has  been  lost,  and  they  are  all  now  called 
without  distinction  £qa'tcini  or  Kai. 

20.  Previous  to  this  time  the  Navajos  had  been  a  peaceable  tribe; 
but  now  they  found  themselves  becoming  a  numerous  people,  and 
some  began  to  talk  of  war.     Of  late  years  they  had  heard  much  of 
the  great  pueblos  along  the  Rio  Grande ;  but  how  their  people  had 
saved  themselves  from  the  anaye,  or  alien  gods,  was  not  known.     A 
man  named  Napail-in9a  got  up  a  war  party  and  made  a  raid  on  a 
pueblo  named  Kinlitci,  or  Red  House,  and  returned  with  some  cap 
tive  women,  from  whom  the  gens  of  Kinlitci  or  Kinlitcini,  is  de 
scended. 

21.  Next  came  a  band  of  Apaches  from  the  south,  representing 
two  gentes,  0estcini  (Red  Streak)  and  Tlastcini  (Red  Flat  Ground). 
These  were  adopted  as  two  separate  gentes  by  the  Navajos,  and  be 
came  affiliated  with  the  Tsinajini  (i.  e.,  entered  the  same  phratry). 

22.  Not  long  after  the  arrival  of  these  Apache  bands,  some  Utes 
came  into  the  neighborhood  of  the  Navajos,  camping  at  a  place 
called  Tse'gi'yikani  (a  ridge  or  promontory  projecting  into  the  river), 
not  far  from  Hyiegin.     They  had  good  arms  of  all  kinds  and  two 
varieties  of  shields,  one  with  a  crescentic  indentation  at  the  top. 
They  lived  for  a  while  by  themselves,  and  were  at  first  inclined  to 
be  unruly  and  impertinent ;  but  in  the  course  of  time  they  merged 
into  the  Navajos,  forming  the  gens  of  Noga  or  Noga0ine  (Ute  people). 

23.  About  the  time  they  were  incorporated  by  the  Navajos,  or 
soon  after,  a  party  of  these  Utes  made  a  raid  on  the  Mexican  settle 
ments  somewhere  in  the  neighborhood  of  Socorro,  and  captured  a 
Spanish  woman.     She  was  their  slave  ;  but  her  descendants  became 
free  among  the  Navajos,  and  formed  the  Nakai-#ine  (People  of  the 
White  Stranger),  or  Mexican  gens,  who  are  affiliated  with  the  Noga- 
0ine. 

24.  At  the  period  of  Navajo  history  which  we  have  now  reached 
[evidently  after  the  advent  of  the  Spaniards],  Big  Knee,  the  chief  of 
the  £qa'paha,  was  still  alive,  but  he  was  a  very  old  and  feeble  man. 
In  those  days  they  had  a  healing  dance  called  natci0,  which  lasted 


The  Gentile  System  of  the  Navajo  Indians.  95 

all  winter  ;  but  it  has  long  ago  fallen  into  disuse,  and  its  rites  are 
forgotten.  During  one  eventful  winter,  this  dance  was  held  for  the 
benefit  of  Big  Knee  at  the  sacred  place  called  £o'yetli,  in  the  San 
Juan  valley.  One  night,  as  the  dance  was  in  progress,  some  strangers 
joined  them,  coming  from  the  direction  of  the  river.  Adopted  by 
the  Navajos,  they  formed  the  gens  of  £o'yetlini,  and  became  affiliated 
with  the  gentes  of  Noga0ine  and  Nakaijzfine. 

25.  On  another  occasion,  during  the  same  winter,  some  Apaches 
came  from  their  country  to  witness  the  dance  of  natci£.    Among  the 
women  of  the  £qa'paha  was  a  wanton  who  became  attached  to  a 
young  Apache,  and  secretly  absconded  with  him  when  he  left.     For 
a  long  time  her  people  did  not  know  what  had  become  of  her ;  but 
after  many  years,  learning  where  she  was,  some  of  them  went  down 
into  the  Apache  country  to  induce  her  to  return.     She  came  back, 
bringing  with  her  two  daughters,  who  had  unusually  fair  skins,  and 
were  much  admired.     They  became  the  mothers   of  a  new  gens, 
named  Qaltso,  or  Yellow  Bodies.1 

26.  On  another  night  of  the  same  winter,  while  the  dance  for  Big 
Knee  was  in  progress,  two  strange  men  entered  the  Navajo  camp. 
They  announced  themselves  as  the  advanced  couriers  of  a  multitude 
of  wanderers  who  had  left  the  shores  of   the  great  waters   in  the 
west  to  join  the  Navajos.     And  now  we  shall  hear  the  story  of  the 
people  who  came  from  the  western  sea. 

27.  As  before  related  (paragraph  3)  Estsanatlehi,  the  goddess  of 
the  west  (who  was  created  in  the  Navajo  land  and  became  the  wife 
'of  the  sun),  went  at  the  bidding  of  the  sun  to  dwell  in  the  western 
ocean.     After  she  had  lived  there  some  time  on  a  floating  home  in 
the  sea,  she  longed  for  the  society  of  man,  and  determined  to  make 
something  of  the  human  kind  to  keep  her  company.    From  epidermis 
scratched  from  her  left  side,  under  the  arm,  she  made  four  persons 
(two  men  and  two  women),  who  became  the  progenitors  of  the  gens 
of  Qonaga'ni ;  from  the  epidermis  of  her  right  side,  under  the  arm, 
she  made  four  persons,  from  whom  came  the  gens  of  Kinaa'ni.     In 
like  manner,  from  her  left  breast  she  made  the  four  ancestors  of  the 
gens  of  £o'0itcini  •  from  the  right  breast  the  ancestors  of  Biga'ni ; 
from  the  middle  of  her  chest  the  ancestors  of  Qacklijni,  and  from 
the  middle  of  her  back,  between  the  shoulders,   the  ancestors  of 
Bic,ani.2    These  groups  did  not  at  first  bear  the  names  by  which  they 
are  now  known.     They  were  always  recognized  as  distinct  from  one 
another,  but  they  received  their  names  later,  as  will  be  told. 

28.  After  a  while  she  transferred  them  from  her  floating  house  on 
the  ocean  to  the  adjacent  coast  of  the  mainland,  and  here  they  lived 

1  Some  explain  this  name  as  meaning  Yellow  Valley,  and  give  it  a  local  origin. 

2  This  gens  is  not  mentioned  again  in  the  myth. 


96  Journal  of  American  Folk-Lore. 

thirty-four  years  and  had  many  children.  At  the  end  of  that  time 
certain  mythic  personages,  called  the  twelve  brothers,  visited  them, 
and  told  them  that  there  was  a  numerous  and  prosperous  nation  like 
themselves  dwelling  far  to  the  east.  "We  do  not  visit  them,"  said 
the  twelve  brothers,  "  but  we  stand  on  the  mountains  and  view  them 
from  afar."  This  news  produced  a  great  commotion  among  the 
western  people  ;  they  discussed  the  matter  for  many  days,  and  finally 
determined  to  travel  eastward  till  they  found  the  race  that  was  like 
themselves. 

29.  Before  they  went,  Estsanatlehi  called  them  to  council  and  said, 
"It  is  a  very  long  and  dangerous  journey  that  you  are  about  to  un 
dertake,  and  it  is  well  you  should  be  protected  on  the  way.     I  will 
give  you  five  of  my  pets  for  guardians  ; "  so  she  gave  them  a  bear, 
a  great  serpent,  a  deer,  a  puma,  and  a  porcupine.     She  gave  them, 
too,  five  mystic  wands  :  to  those  who  became  Qonaga'ni  she  gave  a 
wand  of  turquoise  ;  to  those  who  became  Kinaa'ni,  a  wand  of  white 
shell  ;  to  those  who  became  £o'0itcini,  a  wand  of  red  shell ;  to  those 
who  became  Bica'ni,  a  wand  of  black  stone  ;  and  to  those  who  be 
came  Qaclijni,  a  wand  of  red  stone.     Four  days  after  this  council 
with  Estsanatlehi  they  set  out  on  their  journey. 

30.  Between  the  twelfth   and   sixteenth   days  of  their  eastward 
march  they  went  four  days  without  water,  and  great  were  the  suffer 
ings  of  the  children.     At  the  noon  halt  on  the  fourth  day  the  bearer 
of  the  turquoise  wand  stuck  his  wand  in  the  sand,  worked  it  from 
side  to  side  in  the  hole  he  made,  and  soon  a  stream  of  water  rushed 
up  through  the  hole.     A  woman  of  a  different  gens  to  that  of  the 
turquoise  wand-bearer  stooped  down,  tasted  the  water,  and  exclaimed, 
"  It  is  bitter  water."     At  once  the  people  named  her  £o'0itcini,  or 
"  Bitter  Water,"  and  her  gens  has  borne  the  same  name  ever  since. 

3 1.  They  made  but  a  short  stay  at  the  Bitter  Water  —  long  enough 
to  prepare  and  eat  a  meal  —  and  then  hurried  on,  in  order  that  they 
might  reach,  before  night  fell,  a  mountain  they  saw  in  the  eastern 
distance.     When  they  came  to  the  mountain  they  found  at  its  base 
a  spring  around  which  some  Indians  were  living.     The  people  of 
the  spring,  who  greeted  the  wanderers  pleasantly,  and  made  them 
welcome,  said  that  they  had  been  created  at  the  spring,  and  had  al 
ways  dwelt  there  ;  that  the  place  was  called  Maico'  or  Coyote  Spring, 
and  that  they  were  the  Marine  or  Coyote  People.     The  wanderers 
stayed  four  days  at  the  spring,  during  which  time  they  used  every 
persuasion  to  make  the  Coyote  People  accompany  them.     This  the 
latter  hesitated  to  do,  as  they  knew  of  no  other  water  for  many  days' 
journey  around  them  ;  but  at  length  they  yielded,  and  on  the  fifth 
clay  from  the  arrival  of  the  wanderers  Coyote  Spring  was  deserted. 
To-day  among  the  Navajos  this  people  are  more  often  called  Maico'- 


The  Gentile  System  of  the  Navajo  Indians.  97 

0ine,  from  the  locality  where  they  were  first  found,  than  Marine, 
which  was  their  original  name. 

32.  After  leaving  Coyote  Spring  they  travelled  all  day,  but  found 
no  water.     The  next  day  the  bearer  of  the  white  shell  wand  stuck 
his  wand  into  the  sand  and  manipulated  it,  as  the  bearer  of  the  tur 
quoise  wand  had  done  on  a  previous  occasion,  and,  as  before,  water 
came  forth  from  the  hole  he  made.     A  woman,  not  of  the  wand- 
bearer's  gens,  stooped  to  drink.     "  It  is  muddy,"  she  cried.     "Then 
your  name  shall  be  Qacli'j  "  (Mud),  said  those  who  heard  her,  and  her 
gens  has  borne  the  name  of  Qaclijni,  or  Mud-people,  ever  since. 

33.  They  journeyed  on  (resting  at  night)  until  the  following  noon 
without  water  ;  when  then  they  halted,  the  red  shell  wand  was  thrust 
into  the  ground,  water  came  forth,  and  one  of  the  Maigo'  women 
knelt  down  to  drink.    She  declared  the  water  to  be  saline,  or  alkaline 
(0okonj),  so  to  her  and  to  her  descendants  was  given  the  name  of 
£o'0okonji,  or  Saline  Water.     (See  paragraph  60.) 

34.  They  travelled  until  night,  and  again  until  noon  of  the  next 
day  without  finding  water  ;  then  they  rested,  and  the  bearers  of  the 
black  wand  tried  their  power.     As  usual  water  rose,  but  this  time  it 
was  sweet  and  clear.     All  drank  heartily  and  filled  their  vessels, 
except  one  boy  and  one  girl,  who  stood  by  and  gazed  at  the  water. 
"  Why  do  you  not  come  and  drink  before  the  water  is  all  gone  ?•"  some 
one  said  ;  but  they  only  stood  still  and  looked.     As  the  girl  had  her 
arms  folded  under  her  dress  (the  Navajo  woman's  dress  is  open  at 
the  axillae,  so  that  the  arms  may  be  folded  under  it  in  cold  weather), 
the  people  turned  to  her  and  called  her  Biga'ni,  which   signifies 
Folded  Arms,  and  thus  her  gens  has  been  called  ever  since. 

35.  The  next  march  was  again  a  dry  one,  and  on  the  following 
noon  the  power  of  the  red  stone  wand  was  tried.     The  water  sprang 
up  as  before  ;  but  on  this  occasion  no  gens  was  named.     In  about 
twenty-seven  days  from  this  time  they  arrived  in  the  neighborhood 
of  the  San  Francisco  mountains.     They  had  lived  by  the  way  mostly 
on  seeds  and  very  small  animals,  such  as  hares  and  marmots,  only 
occasionally  killing  a  deer. 

36.  At  a  spring  to  the  east  of  the  San  Francisco  mountains  they 
stopped  for  several  days,  and  built  a  stone  wall,  which  still  stands. 
Here  the  puma  killed  a  deer.     The  bear  sometimes  killed  rabbits. 
The  deer  ran  along  with  the  crowd,  doing  neither  good  nor  harm. 
The  snake  and  the  porcupine  were  not  only  of  no  use,  but  they  were 
an  annoyance,  for  they  had  to  be  carried  along  ;  so  the  people  deter 
mined  to  part  with  them.    When  they  reached  Natsisan  (now  called 
Navajo  Mountain)  they  turned  their  porcupine  pet  loose,  and  this  is 
the  reason  there  are  so  many  porcupines  there  now.     At  a  place 
called  Tse'jintcicilya,  in  the  land  of  the  Oraibes,  they  released  the 


98  Journal  of  American  Folk- Lore. 

snake  among  the  lava  rocks,  and  this  is  why  snakes  are  so  abundant 
there. 

37.  It  was  late  in  the  autumn  when  they  arrived  at  a  place  called 
Yotso,  or  Big  Bead,  and  saw  some  human  footprints  which  were  not 
very  recent.     This  discovery  occasioned  great  excitement,  for  the 
tracks  it  was  thought  might  have  been  made  by  the  people  whom 
they  wished  to  find.     The  majority  of  the  wanderers  determined  to 
sojourn  at  Yotso  all  winter,  but  the  remainder,  including  parts  of 
different  gentes,  became  impatient,  hurried  on,  and  were  not  seen 
again.     The  present  Jicarilla  Apaches  are  supposed  to  be  descended 
from  a  portion  of  these  rash  seceders.     Those  who   remained  at 
Yotso  sent,  at  different  times,  two  pairs  of  couriers  to  follow  the 
fugitives  and  induce  them  to  return.     One  pair  of  couriers  came 
back  after  an  unsuccessful  pursuit ;  the  other  pair  kept  on,  eventually 
reached  the  Navajo  camps  at  £o'yetli,  as  before  related  (paragraph 
27),  and  remained  there  all  winter. 

38.  When  spring  came,  the  wanderers  set  out  again  on  their  jour 
ney.     They  had  not  travelled  many  days  until  they  reached  a  place 
marked  by  one  great  lone  tree,  and  here  some  of  the  £o'0itcini  said, 
"  Our  children  are  weary  and  feeble  ;  their  knees  are  swollen  ;  their 
feet  are  blistered  ;  we  will  go  no  farther.     In  the  course  of  time  the 
people  will  come  here  and  find  us."     So  they  remained,  and  became 
the  gens  of  the  Tsinsaka^ni,  or  People  of  the  (Lone)  Tree,  and  they 
are  now  affiliated  with  the  £o'0itcini,  from  whom  they  separated. 

39.  Soon  after  this  event  the  wanderers  reached  a  place  called 
Pinbigo',  or  Deer  Spring,  and  here  another  party  left  the  £o'0itcini, 
giving  excuses  similar  to  those  of  the  former  deserters.     They  be 
came  the  gens  of  Pinbico',  or  P^bigo'jzfine  (Deer  Spring  People),  and 
they  are  now  affiliated  with  the  £o'0itcini.    At  P^bigo'  the  wanderers 
desired  their  pet  deer  to  go  ;  but  he  refused  to  depart,  and  he  re 
mained  with  the  gens  of  Pinbig6'0ine.     What  finally  became  of  him 
is  not  known. 

40.  In  the  course  of  time,  all  that  was  left  of  the  western  wander 
ers,  after  these  various  desertions,  arrived  at  Hyiegin.     Big  Knee 
still  lived,  but  he  was  feeble  and  in  his  dotage,  and  he  was  not  re 
spected  and  obeyed  as  of  old.     Some  of  his  gens,  the  £qa/paha,  fan 
cied  they  detected  a  relationship  between  themselves  and  the  newly 
arrived  Qaclijni,  because  their  names  had  a  somewhat  similar  mean 
ing,  and  their  head-dresses  and  accoutrements  were  fashioned  alike  ; 
therefore  they  invited  the  Qaclijni  to  dwell  with  them.     These  two 
gentes  have  ever  since  been  close  friends,  yet  f  qa'paha  may  marry 
with  Qaclijni. 

41.  The  bear  was  the  last  pet  which  the  wanderers  retained.    When 
their  journey  was  done  they  said  to  him,  "  Our  pet,  you  have  served 


The  Gentile  System  of  the  Navajo  Indians.  99 

us  well ;  but  we  are  now  safe  among  our  friends  and  need  your  ser 
vices  no  more.  If  you  wish  you  may  leave  us.  There  are  many  of 
your  kind  in  Tcuckai  (the  Chusca  Mountains).  Go  there  and  play 
with  them."  So  they  turned  him  loose  in  Tcuckai,  and  bears  have 
been  very  abundant  there  ever  since. 

42.  One  of  the  gentes  of  the  western  immigrants  was  still  name 
less —  the  people  to  whom  Estsanatlehi  had  given  the  wand  of  tur 
quoise.     They  did  not  remain  long  in  the  San  Juan  valley,  but  soon 
after  their  arrival  set  out  on  a  journey  toward  the   south.      After 
some  days'  travel  they  encountered,  among  some  high  overhanging 
rocks,  a  small  band  of   strangers  speaking  a   language  like  their 
own,  —  a  poor  people  who  lived  mostly  on  wild  seeds  and  small  ani 
mals.      They  said  that  they  had  been  created  in  the  place  where 
they  were  then  livirig,  only  seven  years  previously  and  that  they 
called  themselves  Tse'0ine,   or  Rock  People.     The  nameless  gens, 
however,  gave    them    the   name  of  Tse'nahapilni,  or   Overhanging 
Rock  People. 

43.  The  new-found  people  told  the  nameless  gens  of  some  Apaches 
who  dwelt  farther  to  the  south,  but  not  far  away  ;  and  thither  both 
bands  repaired.   They  found  the  Apaches  at  a  place  called  Tcohonaa, 
where  they  all  recognized  each  other  as  friends  and  embraced  one 
another.     When    the   visitors   had   been   three    years    among    the 
Apaches,  the  Tse'nahapilni  left  for  the  north  to  join  the  Navajos  ; 
but  the  nameless  gens  stayed  longer.     At  the  end  of  that  time,  hav 
ing  determined  to  return  to  the  Navajo  camps  on  the  San  Juan,  they 
packed  up  their  goods  and  prepared  to  leave.     As  they  stood  all 
ready  to  depart,  an  old  woman  was  observed  walking  around  them. 
When  she  had  made  a  complete  circuit  around  the  party  she  turned 
to  them  and  said,  "  You  came  to  us  without  a  name,  and  have  dwelt 
seven  years  without  a  name  among  us ;  but  you  shall  be  nameless 
no  longer  ;  you  are  henceforth  Qonaga/ni,  or  Walked-around  People  " 
[literally,  People  of  the  Walking-place]. 

44.  When  the  Qonaga'ni  returned  to  the  Navajos  they  found  that 
their  friends  the  Tse'nahapilni  had  arrived  before  them,  and  had  be 
come  close  friends  with  the  Tlastcini,  the  0estcini,  the  Kinlitcini, 
and  the  Tsinajini.    The  Qonaga'ni  became  in  time  affiliated  with  the 
gentes  of  £6'qani,  Naqopani,  Dsiltla'ni,  and  £qa'neza'ni,  and  these 
five  gentes  are  now  as  one  people  ;  no  man  of  one  gens  can  marry  a 
woman  of  another. 

45.  There  are  two  of  the  original  gentes  who  came  from  the  Pa 
cific  coast,  namely,  Kinaa'ni  and  Bigam,  of  whom  it  is  not  told  when 
they  received  their  names.      The  former  signifies  a  high-standing 
stone  building  or  pueblo.     The  people  were  not  thus  named  because 
they  had  ever  built  or  inhabited  such  a  house,  but  because  they  were 


i  oo  Journa  I  of  A  merican  Folk-L  ore. 

for  a  long  time  encamped  near  an  old  ruined  pueblo.     [The  stone 
wall  mentioned  in  paragraph  36  probably  has  relation  to  their  name.] 

46.  About  the  time  of  the  return  of  the  Qonaga/ni,  while  some  of 
the  gens  of  (^qa'paha  were  dwelling  at  Agahala'  (Scattered  Wool), 
these  sent  out  at  nightfall  two  of  their  children  to  a  neighboring 
spring  for  water.     When  the  children  returned  they  brought  with 
them  two  extra  water-bottles,  and  being  questioned,  they  said  they 
had  taken  them  away  from  two  strange  children  whom  they  met  at 
the  spring.     The  parents  denounced  the  theft,  and  went  towards  the 
spring  to  seek  the  strange  children.     When  the  latter  were  found 
they  said  :  "  We  belong  to  a  band  of  wanderers  who  have  come  from 
a  distance  and  are  now  encamped  on  yonder  mountain.    They  sent  us 
two  here  to  look  for  water."    "  Then  we  can  give  your  people  a  name," 
said  the  £qa'paha.     "We  will  call  them  £o'bajnaaji"  (Two  Come 
for  Water  Together).     The  kind-hearted  £qa'paha  bade  the  strange 
children  rest  in  the  lodge,  and  sent  their  own  sons  back  to  the  camp 
of  the  strangers  with  water,  and  an  invitation  for  the  latter  to  join 
them.    From  this  it  came  that  f  o'bajnaaji  is  affiliated  with  £qa'paha. 

47.  The  legend  next  tells  us  of  two  bands  of  Apaches  and  one 
band  of  Utes  who  joined  the  Navajos,  and  were  not  regarded  as  new 
gentes,  but  were  adopted  by  the  £qa'paha  ;  it  also  tells  of  a  third 
band  of  Apaches  who  dwelt  first  with  £o'0okonji,  but  afterwards 
joined  the  £qa/paha,  among  whom  their  descendants  are  now  called 


48.  We  next  hear  of  parties  of  Zuni  Indians,  who  came  voluntarily 
to  live  among  the  £qa'paha  during  periods  of  starvation  in  the  Zuni 
villages,  and  who  formed  the  gens  Nanac^eji11.     This  is  the   Navajo 
name  for  the  Zufiis,  and  is  said  to  mean  Black  Horizontal  Streak. 

49.  About  the  time  of  the  advent  of  the   Zufiis,  or  a  little  later, 
there  came  from  the  west  a  strange  people  with  painted  faces,  who 
were  named  0ildjehi,  and  were  supposed  to  have  been  a  part  of  the 
nation  now  called  Mojaves  in  the  Colorado  Canon.     The  0ildjehi 

.first  affiliated  with  the  Nanacgeji?,  but  to-day  they  are  better  friends 
with  the  £qa'tcini  than  with  the  Nanacgejin. 

50.  On  one  occasion  a  war  party  containing  members  of  different 
gentes  went  from  the  San  Juan  settlements  to  a  pueblo  called  Cai- 
beqogan,  or  House  of  Sand.     Here  two  girls  were  captured  by  men 
of  Tse'jinkini  and  brought  home  as  slaves.     There  was  a  salt  lake 
near  the  House  of  Sand,  and  they  had  in  the  pueblo  a  gens  of  Salt 
People  to  which  the  girls  belonged.     From   these  girls  have  de 
scended  a  numerous  race,  who  bear  the  name  Acihi,  or  Salt  People, 
and  who  are  affiliated  with  the  capturing  gens  of  Tse'jinkmi. 

51.  Later,  in  a  season  of  scarcity,  some  people  voluntarily  left  the 
House  of  Sand  to  live  with  the  Navajos.    They  said  that  in  their  own 


The  Gentile  System  of  the  Navajo  Indians.  101 

pueblo  there  was  a  gens  of  £qa'paha,  and  hearing  there  was  such  a 
gens  among  the  Navajos,  they  had  come  to  join  them  ;  thus  they  be 
came  a  part  of  £qa'paha,  and  were  not  formed  into  a  new  gens. 

52.  A  war  party  which  went  to  raid  around  the  pueblo  of  Jemez 
(called  Maijzfecki'j,  or  Coyote  Pass,   by  the   Navajos)   brought  back 
with  them  a  girl.     She  was  captured  by  one  of  the  Tlastcini ;  was 
sold  by  her  captors  to  one  of  the  Tse'jinkini ;  and  became  the  progen 
itor  of  the  gens  of  Maijzfeckijni,  or  Coyote  Pass  People,  who  are  now 
affiliated  with  Tse'jinkini,  the  gens  of  the  purchaser.1 

53.  At  some  time,  just  when  it  is  now  forgotten,  seven  people 
voluntarily  joined  the  Navajos,  coming  from  a  place  called  Tse'yana- 
9o'ni,  or  Horizontal  Water  under  the  Cliffs.     They  came  at  first  for 
a  short  visit  only  ;  but,  deferring  their  departure  from  time  to  time, 
they  remained  as  long  as  they  lived.    The  gens  of  the  Tse'yana^oni 
is  now  extinct. 

54.  Once,  while  some  of  the  gens  of  Biga'ni  were  encamped  at 
a  place  called  (^6'tso  (Big  Water,  or  Big  Spring),  near  the  Carrizo 
Mountains,  a  man  and  a  woman  came  out  of  the  water  and  entered 
their  camp.      They  formed  the  gens  of  £6'tsoni,  or  Great  Water 
People,  who  are  affiliated  with  the  Biga'ni. 

55.  We  must  now  consider  to  what  extent  this  legend  may  be  of 
aid  to  us  in  the  study  of  the  social  organization  of  the  Navajos.     It 
seems,  like  the  traditions  of  all  primitive  races,  to  consist  of  mate 
rial  of  three  sorts  :  The  first  is  unquestionable  myth,  which,  though 
it  may  not  contain  a  word  of  truth,  is  pregnant  with  instruction  to  the 
discriminating  seeker  after  truth  ;  the  second  lies  across  the  dividing 
line  between  myth  and  history,  —  material  in  which  the  gaps  of  im 
perfect  tradition  have  been  filled  by  the  imagination  of  minds  taught 
in  the  mythic  school;  the  third  is  historic,  —  not  absolutely  veritable 
history  (for  where  is  such  history  to  be  found  ?),  but  consisting  of 
oral  traditions  not  sufficiently  antiquated  to  be  greatly  corrupted. 
It  must  be  studied  throughout  inferentially,  and  with  the  correcting 
aid  of  all    pertinent  accessories  ;  with  the  aid  of  comparative   my 
thology,  of  comparative  history,  of  geography  and  topography,  of  the 
philology  and  sociology  of  the  Navajos  and  surrounding  tribes,  with 
the  aid  of  the  traditions  of  surrounding  tribes  and  of  the  written 
history  of  the  Spanish,  Mexican,  and  American  occupations  of  New 
Mexico.     It  will  be  observed  that  much  of  the  tale  relates  to  events 
which  occurred  after  the  advent  of  the  Spanish,  and  a  very  high 
antiquity  is  not  claimed  for  the  most  remote  events.     With  these 
observations  concerning  the  legend  kept  in  view,  we  will  find  it  a 
valuable  auxiliary  to  the  study  of  the  present  division  of  the  Nava 
jos  into  gentes  and  phratries. 

1  Fugitives  from  Spanish  persecution  at  Jemez,  were  added  to  this  gens  later. 


IO2  Journal  of  American  Folk-Lore. 

56.  As  previously  intimated,  I  have  collected  other  versions  of 
this  legend  from  Indians,  but  none  as  complete  as  the  one  presented. 
They  all  agree  pretty  well  as  to  the  main  points ;  the  differences  are 
mostly  in  the  less  important  particulars,  such  as  the  mythic  circum 
stances  under  which  the  names  originated.     Usually  the  differences 
are  easily  reconcilable,  or  apparent  differences  vanish  on  close  exam 
ination. 

57.  This  story,  as  I  give  it,  is  an  epitome  of  one  related  by  a  ven 
erable  shaman  named  Qagali  Nez,  or  Tall  Chanter.     It  accounts  for 
only  thirty-eight  gentes ;  but  this  informant  named  for  me  on  this 
and  other  occasions  forty-three  gentes  in  all,  twa  of  which,  he  said, 
were  extinct.     Among  the  various  lists  in  my  possession  none  give 
a  higher  number  than  this  ;  in  some  I  find  names  not  included  in  the 
list  of  Tall  Chanter,  but  these  are  offset  by  the  omission  of  names 
which  he  mentions.     If  each  name  represents  a  different  organiza 
tion,  we  have  at  least  fifty-one  gentes  in  the  tribe ;  but  since  we  find 
in  the  legend  instances  of  one  gens  having  two  names  (paragraphs 
19,  31),  it  is  not  improbable  that  some  names  are  duplicates.     It  is 
quite  possible,   however,  that  gentes  derived  from   captive  or  en 
slaved  women  added  to  the  tribe  since  it  has  grown  wealthy  and 
powerful,  and  scattered  over  a  wide  territory,  may  exist  in  one  part 
of   the   tribal   domain   unknown   to   the   best-informed   persons    in 
another  part.     Extinct  gentes  may  be  forgotten  by  one  informant 
and  remembered  by  another. 

58.  I  present  below  (paragraph  61)  a  complete  list  of  these  names. 
The  first  forty-three  are  those  of  Tall  Chanter,  arranged  to  the  thir 
ty-eighth  in  the  order  in  which  they  are  introduced  in  the  legend. 
Beside  lists  which  I  have  obtained  directly  from  Indians,  I  have  had 
opportunities  of  consulting  two  others,  unpublished,  one  of  which 
was  collected  by  Captain  John  G.  Bourke,  U.  S.  Army,  and  the  other 
by  Mr.  R.  L.  Packard.  Both  were  procured  at  Fort  Defiance,  Arizona, 
through  the  same  interpreter,  Mr.  Henry  Dodge.     The  legend,  as  I 
have  said,  accounts  for  thirty-eight  gentes ;  it  may  be  only  a  coinci 
dence  that  in  the  following  list  of  fifty-one  names  only  thirty-eight 
are  well  corroborated.     For  those  marked  with  a  star  (*)  I  have  the 
authority  of  one  informant  only,  while  upon  those  not  so  marked  all, 
or  nearly  all,  agree. 

59.  In  many  cases  two  forms  of  the  name  of  a  gens  have  been 
noted,  one  with  and  one  without  a  termination  (0ine,  ni,  or  i)  mean 
ing  "  people."     When  two  such  forms  are  on  record  in  my  notes,  I 
give  here  the  simpler  form  first,  and  the  other  after  in  parenthesis  ; 
but  in  all  cases,  to  simplify  study,  I  omit  the  word  " people"  from  the 
English  equivalents. 

60.  Where  more  than  one  translation  has  been  given  me,  I  record 


6l.    LIST    OF   THE    NAVAJO   GENTES. 


The  Gentile  System  of  the  Navajo  Indians.  103 

in  the  list  that  which  I  regard  with  the  most  favor  ;  some  of  the 
translations  are  necessarily  very  liberal.  There  are  names  for  which 
no  brief  English  equivalents  could  be  found,  and  for  which,  therefore, 
approximate  equivalents  had  to  be  given  ;  names  which  require  expla 
nation  rather  than  definition  or  synonymy,  and  names  whose  etymo 
logical  definitions  do  not  convey  their  true  meanings.  For  instance, 
Tse'jin^iai  signifies  a  long  line  of  black  rocks  standing  up  like  a 
wall.  This  might  mean  an  artificial  wall  of  blackish  stones,  but  as 
the  result  of  much  inquiry  I  learned  that  the  name  refers  to  a  local 
ity  where  there  exists  a  formation  known  in  geology  as  trap-dyke. 
This  is  the  equivalent  which  I  give  for  Tse'jin0iai  in  the  following 
list,  and  yet  I  would  not  venture  to  put  both  words  in  a  dictionary 
as  synonyms.  In  the  name  £o'£ok6nji  the  element  0okonj  refers  to 
anything  which  has  a  distinct  but  not  repulsive  taste  ;  it  has  syno 
nyms  in  other  Indian  languages,  but  not  in  English  ;  it  applies  to 
sugar  and  salt,  but  not  to  bitter  barks.  "  Sapid  "  is  not  an  equivalent. 
I  know  from  explanation  only  that  the  water  is  supposed  to  have  had 
an  agreeable  saline  taste. 


i. 

2. 

3. 

4. 

5. 

6. 

7. 

8. 

9. 
10. 
ii. 
12. 
13. 
14. 
15. 
1  6. 
17. 
1  8. 
19. 
20. 
21. 
22. 
23. 
24. 
25. 
26. 
27. 
28. 
29. 


Tse'jinkfni, 

Tse'tlani, 

Dsilanocjlni, 

Qackanqatso  (Qacka'qatso^ine), 

Naqopani, 

Tsinajini, 

£qa'neza'  (Qqa'neza'ni), 

Dsiltla'ni, 

Qqa'paha  (Qqd'paha^ine), 

Tsa'yisktyni, 

Tse'jin^iai  (Tse'jin^iai^ine), 

Klogi  (K16gi£ine), 

^6'qani, 

£qa'tcini, 

Kai  (Katyine), 

Kinlitci(Kinlitclni), 

^estcmi, 

Tlastcini, 

Nogk  (NoQa^ine), 

Nakai  (Nakai^ine), 

go'yetlini, 

Qalto  (Qaltso^ine), 


Maigo'  (Maigo^ine), 
Qaclij  (Qaclijni), 


Biga'ni, 
TsinsakaYni, 


House  of  the  Black  Cliffs. 

Bend  of  a  Canon. 

Encircled  Mountain. 

Much  Yucca. 

Brown  Streak ;  Horizontal  on  the  Ground. 

Black  Horizontal  Forest. 

Among  the  Scattered  (Hills). 

Base  of  the  Mountain. 

Among  the  Waters. 

Sage-brush  Hill. 

Trap-dyke  (see  paragraph  60). 

(Name  of  an  old  pueblo.) 

Beside  the  Water. 

Among  the  Red  (Waters  or  Banks). 

Willows. 

Red  House  (of  Stone). 

R^ed  Streak. 

Red  Flat. 

Ute. 

White  Stranger  (Mexican). 

Junction  of  the  Rivers. 

Yellow  Bodies  (see  paragraph  25,  note). 

Bitter  Water. 

Coyote  Spring. 

Mud. 

Saline  Water  (see  paragraph  60). 

Folded  Arms. 

Lone  Tree. 

Deer  Spring. 


IO4 


Journal  of  American  Folk-Lore. 


30.  Tse'nahapflni, 

31.  Qonagd'ni, 

32.  Kinaa'ni, 

33.  Co'bajnaaj  (Co'bajnaaji), 

34.  Nanacge'ji0, 
*35.  <£ildjehi, 

36.  Acihi  (AcihiYine), 

37.  Mai^eckfj  (Mai^eckijni), 
*38.  Tse'yanago'ni  [extinct], 

39.  £6'tsoni, 

40.  Bigam  or  Dsilgani, 

41.  Tse'yikehe  (Tse'yikehe^ine). 
*42.  Tlizilani, 

*43.  Qo'tcalsigaya  [extinct], 

*44-  Aatsosni, 

*45.  Nad'i  (Nad'i^ine), 

*46.  Yoo, 

*47.  Ka'nani, 

*48.  Tse'gqani, 

*49.  Loka  (Loka^ine), 

*5o.  Tse'^eckfjni, 

*5i.  Qoganlkni, 


Overhanging  Rocks. 

Place  of  Walking. 

High-standing  House. 

Two  Come  for  Water. 

Black  Horizontal  Stripe  Aliens  (Zufii). 

(Not  translated.) 

Salt. 

Coyote  Pass  (Jemez). 

Horizontal  Water  under  Cliffs. 

Great  Water. 

Brow  of  Mountain. 

Rocks  Standing  near  One  Another. 

Many  Goats. 

Water  under  the  "  Sitting  Frog  "  (?). 

Narrow  Gorge. 

Monocline. 

Beads. 

Living  Arrows. 

Among  the  Rocks. 

Reeds  (Phragmites). 

Rocky  Pass. 

Many  Huts. 


62.  There  is  little  doubt  that  in  the  majority  of  cases  the  names 
of  Navajo  gentes,  which  are  not  the  names  of  tribes,  are  simply 
designations  of  localities.  We  do  not  arrive  at  this  conclusion  from 
the  teachings  of  the  legend  alone,  but  from  the  meanings  of  the 
names  themselves,  so  often  unquestionably  local.  Indeed,  in  some 
cases,  where  we  feel  certain  of  a  local  origin  for  the  appellation  of  a 
gens,  the  legend  presents  a  different  origin,  as  in  the  cases  of  the 
western  immigrants  who  are  said  to  be  named  from  women  who,  in 
turn,  were  known  by  words  they  uttered  when  they  first  tasted  of 
the  different  magic  fountains.  Where  the  legend  positively  states 
that  a  gens  was  named  after  a  locality  where  it  lived,  we  have  little 
reason  to  doubt  its  truth,  even  though  the  interpretation  of  the  name 
may  not  be  above  criticism.  We  are  told  in  the  above  story  not 
only  that  many  of  the  gentes  originated  in  localities  whose  names 
they  bear,  that  often  they  had  lived  so  long  in  these  localities  that 
the  memory  of  man  ran  not  to  the  contrary,  that  they  believed  them 
selves  created  in  these  localities,  but  we  are  told  that  after  they  had 
become  incorporated  with  the  Navajo  nation  they  often  continued  to 
live  more  or  less  apart  down  to  a  very  recent  day.  Even  when  they 
lived  in  close  proximity  to  one  another  in  the  valley  of  the  San  Juan, 
they  did  not  mingle  houses  and  farms  promiscuously,  but  members 
of  the  same  gens  held  somewhat  together.  Members  of  each  and 
every  gens  may  now  be  found  scattered  all  over  the  Navajo  country, 
and  chiefs  seem  to  exercise  only  local  authority  ;  yet  if  you  ask  a 
Navajo  what  people  any  particular  chief  controls,  he  will  invariably 


The  Gentile  System  of  the  Navajo  Indians.  105 

give  you  the  name  of  the  gens,  and  not  of  the  modern  local  group, 
to  which  such  chief  belongs.  I  have  some  reasons  for  believing 
that  to  this  day,  much  as  the  gentes  are  scattered,  some  of  them  are 
still  more  prevalent  than  others  in  certain  localities.  However, 
leaving  all  uncertainties  aside,  we  have  facts  enough  to  warrant  us 
in  concluding  that  most  of  these  gentes  were  originally,  and  until 
quite  recently,  local  exogamous  groups,  and  not  true  gentes,  accord 
ing  to  Morgan's  definition.  Whenever,  as  mentioned  in  the  tradi 
tion,  from  an  alien  race  a  new  accession  came,  it  received,  as  a  rule, 
the  name  of  the  tribe  or  pueblo  from  which  it  was  derived,  as  if  the 
whole  people  thereof  was  regarded  as  an  exogamous  group.  In  few 
cases  (paragraphs  15,  50,  51)  do  we  find  any  regard  paid  to  the  former 
gentes  of  the  new  arrivals. 

63.  Of  tribes  allied  in  language  to  the  Navajos  and  Apaches,  — 
that  is,  Athabascan  tribes, — among  the  nearest,  geographically,  are 
those  of  the  Siletz  Agency  in  Oregon.  These  Indians  have  been 
recently  well  studied,  particularly  with  regard  to  their  social  organi 
zation,  by  the  Rev.  J.  Owen  Dorsey,  to  whom  I  am  indebted  for  the 
information  I  here  impart  concerning  them.  They  are  now  collected 
on  a  government  reservation,  and  are  divided  into  a  series  of  exoga 
mous  clans  (gentes  we  may  call  them),  but  each  clan  represents  a 
different  village  in  the  Rogue  River  valley  occupied  by  the  Siletz 
Indians  within  the  memory  of  men  now  living,  and  bears  the  name 
of  the  village  from  whence  it  came.  As  now  no  man  may  marry 
within  his  own  clan,  so  in  former  days  no  man  might  marry  within 
his  own  village  ;  he  was  obliged  to  seek  his  wife  elsewhere.  In  short, 
the  village  was  an  exogamous  group,  such  as  the  Navajo  gens  seems 
to  have  been.  The  names  of  the  Siletz  villages  bear  a  general 
formative  resemblance  to  the  names  of  the  Navajo  gentes,  but  only 
in  one  instance  do  I  find  a  close  similarity  ;  this  is  in  the  name  of  the 
village  of  Tutuni,  which  has  much  the  same  sound  and  quite  the  same 
meaning  as  that  of  the  Navajo  gens  £6'tsoni,  or  People  of  the  Great 
Water.  Having  in  view  only  such  resemblances  between  these  two 
branches  of  the  same  Athabascan  stock,  it  is  easy  for  us  to  suppose 
that  they  had  at  no  distant  day  similar  clan  organizations.  But  a 
difficulty  seems  to  arise  when  we  learn  that  they  have  different  laws 
with  regard  to  the  line  of  descent.  Among  the  Navajos  the  child 
belongs  to  the  gens  of  his  mother ;  among  the  Siletz  Indians,  he  be 
longs  to  that  of  his  father.  There  are  some  ethnologists  who  main 
tain  that  the  change  from  mother-right  to  father-right  involves  a 
great  advance  in  civilization  or  in  social  organization,  and  a  great 
lapse  of  time.  There  are  others  who  consider  the  change  a  facile 
one,  and  cite  instances  where  they  have  known  it  to  occur.  Among 
the  Navajos  it  seems  to  involve  no  change  at  all,  if  we  may  judge 

VOL.  in.  —  NO.  9.          8 


io6  Journal  of  American  Folk-Lore. 

from  the  legend  in  which,  as  I  will  presently  point  out,  descent  in 
both  lines  seems  to  be  recognized  as  determining  consanguinity.  If 
we  have  among  the  Navajos  evidence  of  the  existence  of  both 
father-right  and  mother-right,  and  among  the  Rogue  River  Indians 
evidence  of  father-right  and  no  evidence  to  show  that  some  regard 
is  not  paid  to  mother-right,  the  argument  in  favor  of  a  former  iden 
tity  of  laws  regulating  descent  and  a  similar  origin  of  gentes,  among 
these  two  tribes,  will  not  appear  unreasonable. 

64.  Although  the  names  of  the  Navajo  gentes  are  not  now  totemic, 
the  legend  seems  to  indicate  that  some  of  them  once  were  ;  and  al 
though  I  have  not  discovered  the  existence  of  clan  totems  among 
the  Navajos  to-day,  there  are  passages  in  the  legend,  and  there  are 
customs  now  existing  among  the  people,  which  can  be  well  explained 
by  assuming  that  such  totems  once  existed.  The  original  gentes  of 
the  immigrants  from  the  Pacific  shore  had,  says  the  legend  (para 
graph  27)  no  names  when  the  goddess  Estsanatlehi  sent  them  forth 
on  their  eastward  journey  ;  later  they  acquired  names  apparently 
of  local  origin,  like  the  older  Navajo  clan  names.  But  when  they 
set  out  on  their  journey  each  clan  was  provided  with  a  different  pet, 
a  bear,  a  puma,  a  deer,  snake,  and  a  porcupine  (paragraph  29). 
The  Navajo  word  (lin),  which  in  this  connection  I  translate  as  "pet," 
means  a  domestic  animal  of  any  kind,  of  late  years  especially  a 
horse  ;  it  also  means  an  animal  fetich  or  personal  animal  totem. 
In  the  myth  of  the  Mountain  Chant,  a  Navajo  youth  is  made  to  ad 
dress  his  deer  mask  as  "  cilin,"  my  pet.1  I  might,  then,  have  given 
the  translation  of  this  word  as  totem,  and  thus  have  avoided  all  argu 
ment  at  the  expense  of  the  reader's  enlightenment.  Again,  when 
these  clans  had  received  local  names,  the  pets  were  set  free.  These 
passages,  and  others  in  the  legend,  allude  in  all  likelihood,  to  the 
former  use  of  totemic  clan-symbols,  probably  to  the  existence  of 
totemic  clan-names,  and  possibly  to  a  custom,  not  now  practised  by 
the  Navajos,  of  keeping  in  captivity  live  totemic  animals,  —  a  cus 
tom  common  to  the  ancient  Mexicans  and  the  modern  Pueblos.  The 
story  of  the  Deer  Spring  People  (paragraph  39)  affords,  perhaps,  the 
best  evidence  in  favor  of  totemic  names  to  be  found  in  the  legend. 
It  is  related  that  a  portion  of  the  Bitter  Water  People  (£o'0itcini), 
becoming  weary  of  travel,  remained  at  a  place  called  Deer  Spring, 
where  they  became  afterwards  known  as  the  Pinbi$6'£ine,  or  Deer 
Spring  People  ;  that  here  the  deer  was  desired  to  depart,  but  refused 
to  do  so,  and  remained  with  the  people  who  stopped  behind  at  the 
spring,  and  that  what  finally  became  of  him  is  not  known.  Assum 
ing  that  the  immigrants  from  the  west  had  once  totemic  names,  we 

1  The  Mountain  Chant:  A  Navajo  Ceremony.     Fifth  Annual  Report  of  the 
Bureau  of  Ethnology,  Washington,  1888,  pp.  395,  466. 


The  Gentile  System  of  the  Navajo  Indians.  107 

explain  this  part  of  the  tale  by  saying  that  it  was  people  of  the  deer 
gens  who  stayed  behind,  and  naturally  gave  their  name  to  the  spring 
where  they  remained,  that  in  the  course  of  time  they  became  as  the 
People  of  the  Deer  Spring,  and  that,  as  they  still  retain  their  old 
totemic  name  in  a  changed  form,  the  story-teller  is  constrained  to 
say  that  the  fate  of  the  deer  is  not  known.  On  the  same  assump 
tion,  an  explanation  similar  in  part  to  the  above  may  be  given  for  the 
origin  of  the  names  of  some  gentes  not  derived  from  the  western 
immigrants,  such  as  the  Maig6'0ine,  or  Coyote  People,  who  were 
picked  up  by  immigrants  en  route.  These  called  themselves  Mai0ine, 
or  Coyote  People ;  but  they  are  called  now  by  the  Navajos  after  the 
spring  (Maic^o')  where  they  lived,  —  the  spring  probably  being  named 
from  the  people  who  dwelt  there.  The  gens  of  Qackanqats60ine,  or 
Much  Yucca  People,  we  are  told  (paragraph  6),  was  originally  called 
Qackan0ine,  or  Yucca  People,  and  the  land  where  it  dwelt  Oackanqatso, 
"  because  many  yuccas  grew  there,"  say  my  informants.  May  we  not 
say  instead,  "because  many  people  of  the  Yucca  clan  lived  there  "  ? 
Another  circumstance  which  may  be  regarded  as  pointing  to  a  for 
mer  clan  totemism  is  the  existence  among  the  Navajos  of  certain 
taboos  ;  these  are  chiefly  fish  and  natatorial  birds.  When  we  read, 
in  the  legend,  that  before  they  joined  the  Navajos  the  Tse'tlani  lived 
on  duck  and  snakes  (paragraph  4),  we  need  not  suppose  that  this  is 
said  with  a  view  to  commiserate  them  on  the  inferiority  of  their  diet, 
but  merely,  perhaps,  to  show  that  they  had  not  the  same  taboo  as  the 
original  gentes,  and  that,  whatever  other  things  they  may  have  had  in 
common  with  the  latter,  they  differed  in  this  particular. 

65.  As  we  follow  the  tale,  we  observe  that  different  gentes  are 
received  into  the  tribe  with  different  degrees  of  willingness  on  both 
sides.  In  some  cases  two  parties,  meeting  for  the  first  time,  throw 
themselves  at  once  into  each  other's  arms.  Clans  dwelling  on  the 
Pacific  coast  hear  of  the  existence  of  kindred  tribes  far  to  the  east, 
set  out  over  a  long  and  dangerous  route  to  join  them  and,  arriving 
among  the  Navajos,  are  received  at  once  and  without  question.  On 
the  other  hand,  we  hear  of  clans  who  remain  for  a  long  time  neigh 
bors  of  the  Navajos  before  they  enter  into  tribal  relations  with  them  ; 
of  other  clans  descended  from  captives  taken  from  hostile  tribes  ;  and 
of  others  who  only  seek  a  refuge  among  the  Navajos  from  starvation 
or  persecution.  We  can  broadly  divide  the  accessions  into  two 
classes,  the  ready  and  the  reluctant,  and  it  remains  for  us  to  conjec 
ture  what  social  element  produced  this  difference.  I  have  little 
doubt  that  this  element  was  language.  We  observe  that  all  gentes 
derived  from  the  Apaches,  a  tribe  allied  in  language  to  the  Navajos, 
are  to  be  classed  among  the  ready,  while  all  accessions  from  tribes 
which  we  now  know  to  speak  tongues  alien  to  the  Navajo,  belong  to 


io8  Journal  of  American  Folk-Lore. 

the  reluctant.  Reasoning  then  from  the  known  to  the  unknown,  we 
can,  if  we  accept  the  legend,  without  much  difficulty  distinguish  the 
gentes  of  Tinneh  or  Athabascan  origin  from  those  of  alien  origin  in 
the  present  highly  complex  tribe  known  as  the  Navajos.  What  lan 
guage  the  £qa'paha  spoke  we  do  not  know,  but  the  legend  tells  us 
that  it  was  different  to  the  Navajo.  I  have  procured  a  short  list  of 
ancient  Navajo  words  (before  the  advent  of  the  £qa'paha)  with  their 
modern  synonyms.  Perhaps  I  may  yet  succeed  in  getting  a  list  of 
the  £qa'paha  as  it  was.  It  is  not,  however,  until  all  the  languages 
of  the  Southwest  have  been  thoroughly  studied  that  we  can  even 
approximately  determine  all  the  elements  of  the  Navajo  tongue,  —  a 
tongue  which  will  no  doubt  reveal  an  interesting  array  of  loan-words 
to  the  future  philologist. 

66.  It  may  be  noted  that  in  the  legend  frequent  allusions  are 
made  to  gentes  forming  with  other  gentes  special  friendships  and 
affiliations,  which  were  often  of  such  a  nature  as  to  preclude  marriage 
between  members  of   different   gentes.     This  system  of  affiliation 
divides  the  Navajo  gentes  into  a  number  of  groups  which  have  no 
special  names,  and  which  in  other  respects  differ  somewhat  from  the 
subtribal  groups  of  other  races.     Yet  they  are  so  closely  analogous 
to  the  phratry  as  defined  by  Morgan  that  I  can  do  no  better  than 
apply  to  them  this  name,  which  he  has  adopted  for  us  from  the 
Greeks. 

67.  Different  informants  divide  the  tribe  into  somewhat  different 
phratral  groups.     Tall  Chanter  made  but  nine  phratries.     Captain 
Bourke's  informant  made  eleven,   with  three   independent  gentes. 
The  numbers  made  by  others  range  from  eight  to  twelve.     The  ar 
rangement  of  gentes  into  phratries  are  somewhat  different.    The  ma 
jority  of  these  discrepancies  may  be  accounted  for  otherwise  than  , 
by  supposing  ignorance  on  the  part  of  the  informants,  or  error  on 
the  part  of  the  recorders.     It  is  to  be  observed  that  in  the  legend 
mention  is  made  of  cases  in  which  gentes  have  in  the  course  of 
time  changed  their  phratral  affiliations,  and  there  is  one  case  given 
where  one  gens  belongs  to  two  phratries  (paragraphs  40,  68).     In 
quiry  on  this  point  has  elicited  the  information  that  such  cases  are 
not  uncommon ;  and  again  there  are  sub-phratries,  i.  e.,  a  certain 
number  of  gentes  in  a  phratry  are  more  intimately  related  to  one 
another  than  they  are  to  the  other  affiliated  gentes.     In  short,  the 
Navajo  phratry  is  not  always  a  homogeneous  organization,  and  infor 
mants  may  differ  without  invalidating  each  other's  testimony.     It 
would  have  been  well  had  I  found  an  intelligent  man  for  each  gens 
to  give  me  his  own  phratral  affiliations  ;  but  this  plan  did  not  occur 
to  me  until  quite  recently,  when  the  opportunity  to  pursue  it  was 
lacking,  and  when  I  had  advanced  far  in  the  study  and  comparison 
of  my  records. 


The  Gentile  System  of  the  Navajo  Indians.  109 

68.  The  nine  phratries,  as  given  by  Tall  Chanter,  are  as  follows  :  — 

I.  i,  gqd'paha  ;  2,  Tsa'yisktyni ;  3,  Tse'jin^iai ;  4,  Klogi ;  5,  Qaltso  ;  6,  go'baj- 
naaj. 

II.  I,  Tsinajini;    2,  Kinlitci;    3,  <£estcmi ;  4,    Tlastcini ;    5,  Tse'nahapilni  ;  6, 
Tlizilani. 

III.  i,  Tse'jinkfni ;  2,  Acihi ;  3,  Mai^eckij ;  4,  Dsilnaocjlni ;  5,  Qackanqats& ;  6, 
Tse'tlani. 

IV.  i,  gqa'tcini ;  2,  Kai ;  3,  Nanacc.e'ji11 ;  4,  Tse'yikehe  ;  5,  <£ildjehi. 

V.  i,  go'yetlini;  2,  Noga;  3,  Nakai. 

VI.  I,  go'tsoni ;  2,  Bic.£'ni ;  3,  Qaclfj ;  4,  Bigani ;  5,  Kina<i'ni. 

VII.  I,  goYitcini;  2,  Pinbigo';  3,  Tsinsaka^ni. 

VIII.  i,  go'qani;  2,  Dsiltli'ni  ;  3,  Naqopani;  4,  Qqa'nezd' ;  5.  Qonagd'ni. 

IX.  I,  Maigo'  ;  2,  go^okonji. 
Tse'yanago'ni  and  Qo'tcalsigaya  are  extinct. 

69.  The  following  are  the  eleven  phratries  recorded  by  Captain 
Bourke :  — 

I.  i,  go'tsoni  ;  2,  Bigani ;  3,  Qaclfj  ;  4,  Tse^eckfjni. 

II.  I,  Qonaga'ni;  2,  Dsiltld'ni ;  3,  go'qani ;  4,  gqa'nezd' ;  5,  Naqopkni. 

III.  I,  Acihi;  2,  Tse'jinkini ;  3,  Mai^eckij. 

IV.  I,  gqd'paha;  2,  Qdltso ;  3,  Tsa'yiskiYni ;  4,  go'bajnaaj. 

V.  I,  goYitcini;  2,  Tsinsaka^ni ;  3,  P^bigo' ;  4,  Ac,o'ts6sni. 

VI.  i,  go^ok6Dji;  2,  Tse'jin^iai;  3,  Klogi. 

VII.  i,  Nanac^dji" ;  2,  gqa'tcini. 

VIII.  I,  Dsilnaogflni ;  2,  Yoo ;  3,  Tse'yikehe;  4,  Tse'nahapilni. 

IX.  i,  Tlastcini;  2,  Kinlitci;  3,  Tsinajini;  4,  ^estcini  ;  5,  Ka'nani;  6,  L6ka. 

X.  i,  Nakai  ;  2,  go'yetlini. 

XL  i,  Kinaa;ni ;  2,  Bigd'ni ;  3,  Dsilgkni. 

Qackanqatso,  Qoganlkni,  and  Kai  are  unaffiliated  gentes. 

70.  At  the  first  glance  the  above  lists  would  seem  to  be  widely 
different ;  but  on  examination  this  apparent  difference  is  found  to 
depend  largely  on  difference  of  arrangement.     For  twenty-nine  of 
the  thirty-eight  best  authenticated  gentes  the   two  lists  agree,  as 
shown  in  the  following  table,  where  the  phratries  of  Tall  Chanter  are 
indicated  in  Arabic  numerals,  and  those  of  Captain  Bourke  in  Ro 
man  :  — 

1.  (IV.)  gqa'paha,  Tsa'yiski^ni,  Qaltso,  go'bajnaaj. 

2.  (IX.)  Tsinajini,  Kinlitci.  (^estcini,  Tlastcini. 

3.  (III.)  Tse'jinkini,  Acihi,  Mai^eckij. 

4.  (VII.)  gqd'tcini,  Nanacc.e'ji". 

5.  (X.)  go'yetlini,  Nakai. 

6.  (I.)  gotsoni,  Qaclfj,  Bi?ani ;  (XI.)  Biga'ni,  Ki'aa'ni. 

7.  (V.)  go'^itcini,  Pinbic,6',  Tsinsakd^ni. 

8.  (II.)  go'qani,  Dsiltld'ni,  Naqopani,  gqa'nez£'. 

9.  (VI.)  go'-£okonji. 

Among  all  phratry  lists  in  my  possession  I  find  an  equal  or  greater 
agreement  than  the  above  concerning  the  well-authenticated  gentes; 
it  is  in  giving  the  affinities  of  the  ill-authenticated  that  the  diversities 
mostly  occur. 


no  Journal  of  A merican  Folk-Lore. 

71.  The  reasons  assigned  in  the  legend  for  the  incorporation  of 
gentes  into  phratries  are  various.     Sometimes  two  or  more  gentes 
live  as  near  neighbors  for  a  long  time  and  gradually  become  affil 
iated  (paragraphs  5,  7,  13,  et  al.) ;  on  other  occasions  two  gentes  dis 
cover  that  their  names  are  synonymous  (paragraph  40),  or  that  their 
dress  and  accoutrements  are  alike  (paragraphs  6,  10),  and  hence  con 
clude   that  some   old   relationship    must  exist   between  them  ;   but 
when  we  come  to  recent  and  historic  days,  we  find  reasons  of  a  dif 
ferent  character  given.     A  man  of  the  Noga  or  Ute  gens  captures  a 
Mexican  woman ;  her  children  take  the  name  of  Nakai,  or  Mexican, 
as  a  gens,  but  they  belong  to  the  phratry  of  her  captor  (paragraph 
23).     Why  ?     Is  it  not  because  her  captor  became  the  father  of  her 
children  ?     Again,  men  of  Tse'jinkfni  capture  a  woman  of  the  Salt 
gens  of  Caibehogan  ;  her  children  form  the  gens  of  Acihi  or  Salt, 
and  belong  to  the  phratry  of  Tse'jinkini  (paragraph  50).     A  man  of 
Tlastcini  takes  captive  a  woman  of  Jemez,  but  sells  her  to  a  man  of 
Tse'jinkini ;    in  this  case  the  descendants  belong  to  the   gens   of 
Jemez,  or  Maijzfeckjmi,  and  to  the  phratry  of  Tse'jinkini;  that  is, 
not  to  the  phratry  of  the  captor,  but  to  that  of  the  purchaser,  who 
is  also  no  doubt  the  father  of  her  children.    We  have  some  evidence, 
then,  that  as  the  gens  transmits  mother-right,  so  the  phratry  trans 
mits  father-right.     Can  the  modern  Navajo  marry  into  the  phratry 
of  his  father  ?     I  regret  that  I  cannot  answer  this  question. 

72.  It  is  held  by  Morgan  and  others  that  modern  gentes  are  but 
divisions  of  parent  gentes  which  are  now  represented  by  the  phra 
tries  ;  in  other  words,  that  gentes  have  arisen  by  a  process  of  seg 
mentation.     According  to  the  legend,  some  such  segmentation  has 
taken  place  to  a  limited  extent  among  the  Navajos  (paragraphs  33,  38, 
39),  but  in  the  majority  of  instances  phratries  are  formed  by  the  ag 
gregation  of  gentes,  a  process  exactly  opposite  to  that  described  by 
Morgan.     We  do  not  rely  on  the  legend  alone  for  evidence  of  this  ; 
it  requires  no  argument  to  show  that  at  least  the  gentes  derived  from 
alien  tribes  must  be  additions  to  the  phratry  from  without.     Morgan 
finds  that  among  the  tribes  which  he  has  studied  the  phratry  bears 
the  name  of  one  of   its  gentes,  —  the  gens  which  is   supposed  to 
have  suffered  division.     The  Navajos  give  no  formal  name  to  their 
phratries ;  yet   I   find  a  tendency  among  them,  when  speaking   of 
their  phratral   affiliations,  to   refer   more   frequently  to   some   one 
gens  —  usually  the  most  ancient  or  most  numerous — than  to  any 
other  in  the  phratry.     Thus  a  man  of  the  gens  of  Tsa'yiskfeini  in 
the  first  phratry  (paragraph  68)  is  more  likely  to  say  he  belongs  to 
the  phratry  of  ^qa'paha  than  to  that  of  Qaltso.     It  is  easy  to  be 
lieve  that  this  tendency  might  in  time  culminate  in  the  permanent 
selection  of  a  name  for  a  phratry. 

Washington  Matthews. 


